Israel has taken some positive steps but is not yet fully implementing an agreement with the European Union to increase humanitarian aid supplies in Gaza, EU aid chief Hadja Lahbib said on Tuesday.
“We have (seen) some positive developments. It’s true that we have trucks that are able to enter, but we don’t know exactly how many. And what is clear is that the agreement is not fully implemented,” she told reporters before a meeting EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Meanwhile, one in ten children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza is malnourished, Unrwa said.
“Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March,” Unrwa’s Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.
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The UN rights office said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
The GHF has repeatedly denied incidents have occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies. Reuters